Online Reporter
Gift Moyo, [email protected]
AWARD-WINNING actress and content creator Thandolwenkosi Nkiwane, popularly known as Dramatic Miss, has shared the secret behind creating viral content, saying relevance, awareness and understanding audience interests are key to turning ordinary posts into online sensations.
The National Arts Merit Awards Outstanding Actress (Theatre) recipient continues to carve out a niche in Zimbabwe’s digital entertainment space through comedy skits that blend humour with topical issues, attracting engagement from both local and international audiences.
Recently, she demonstrated the power of timely content after a comedy skit paying tribute to late American country music legend Dolly Parton garnered more than one million views on Facebook in less than 24 hours.
Inspired by the global outpouring of grief and admiration from Parton’s fans, the skit combined humour, creativity and heartfelt appreciation for the music icon, striking a chord with audiences beyond Zimbabwe.
Parton’s death on August 25 triggered a wave of tributes across social media, with fans and content creators around the world finding creative ways to celebrate her life and legacy. She was buried on August 28.
For Dramatic Miss, the success of her Dolly Parton skit was not simply a matter of luck, but a reflection of the importance of creating content around issues already capturing public attention.
As the number of content creators and the volume of online content continue to grow, she believes creators must do more than post regularly if they hope to stand out in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.
“The secret to going viral for any content creator is to stay relevant and stay informed. You shouldn’t be making content for the sake of making content, but rather from an educated and informed standpoint,” she said.
Dramatic Miss said staying abreast of current affairs has become a crucial part of her creative process, helping her identify topics audiences are already interested in.
“Content creators need to stay informed about what is happening around the world. Usually, most of my content that trends very well trends because I watch the news and I know what is taking place in the world around me.
“For example, the recent content piece that I did on Dolly Parton was after news had broken that she had just died. Even if a content creator posted a video about Dolly Parton and it was boring, it was most likely to trend because of how important she was to the world.
“This is because you’re creating something that is currently relevant and easy for people to relate to,” she said.
However, she acknowledged that going viral is not entirely within a creator’s control.
According to Dramatic Miss, audiences ultimately determine whether content resonates, while external factors can also influence how widely a post is shared.
“I both agree and disagree. The people that we as content creators create content for can decide between liking your content or not. Some external reasons can influence their decision when they come across your content,” she said.
While virality cannot be guaranteed, she believes creators can improve their chances by being deliberate about the content they produce.
“If you, as a content creator, want to influence and engineer how viral a piece of content goes on social media, then you have to create a piece of content that catches people’s attention and is something out of the norm. You want to create content that relates to and entertains a large number of people and not just a select few,” she said.
